Qld: Political correctness stops best treatment: dad of the year

AAP General News (Australia)
08-28-2007
Qld: Political correctness stops best treatment: dad of the year

By Gabrielle Dunlevy

BRISBANE, Aug 28 AAP - Queensland's father of the year fears political correctness
is stopping some deaf children from getting the best treatment.

Dr John Quayle, chairman of the Queensland cochlear implant program since its inception
in 1982, said today advice to parents about profound hearing loss is often conflicting
and confused.

Attempts at political correctness, by exploring a variety of options, "really often
fritters away the critical period" for finding solutions after diagnosis of a child's
profound hearing loss, he said.

Dr Quayle, a 70-year-old father of four and grandfather of 10, said as he accepted
his award in Brisbane today that his aim was to help profoundly deaf children.

"I would like to be a much better father to our severely deaf children," he said.

"We can make the majority of deaf children hear and talk and learn, and for various
reasons, we're not doing it."

Dr Quayle said deaf children achieved the best outcomes when intervention, such as
an implant, was made in the first six months, when auditory skills were still developing.

He said diagnosis and treatment of deafness had advanced significantly since he became
an ear, nose and throat surgeon in 1970, but wasn't being exploited.

"Of all the exciting advances in medicine over the past 40 years, in my view, none
surpasses our ability to diagnose a deaf child in the first weeks of life," Dr Quayle
said.

"Aiding or perhaps a cochlear implant and appropriate auditory-verbal therapy, and
much hard work, give that child an opportunity of competing with his fellows in a normal
school environment with age-appropriate development.

"Sadly, at a time when families are devastated with the diagnosis of a profound hearing
loss in their child, advice is often conflicting and confused.

"Believe it or not there remain entrenched positions and vested interests.

"Attempts at political correctness, by exploring a variety of options, really often
fritters away the critical period."

Queensland Father's Day Council chairman, the Reverend Allen Male, said Dr Quayle was
a "sterling role model".

AAP gd/pjo/jt/mn

KEYWORD: QUAYLE NIGHTLEAD

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